Set in 1983, the first season of the series opens with an ominous prelude of a man frantically running through the darkened hallways of a top-secret laboratory before being grabbed by an unseen monster.

The action switches to the scene of some junior high school boys in the small Indiana town of Hawkins – Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), and Will (Noah Schnapp) – in the midst of playing Dungeons & Dragons in Mike’s basement.

Mike’s mom (Cara Buono) tells the boys it’s late and sends the others home. Will and Dustin race on their bikes. After Will pulls ahead, he crashes his bike into the wooded area of the secret lab. On foot, he hears scary noises and runs for protection in a shed, but is grabbed by an unseen entity.

The Duffer Brothers behind the scenes on “Stranger Things 2” (courtesy of Netflix)

This image released by Netflix shows Millie Bobby Brown in a scene from “Stranger Things.” Brown was nominated for an Emmy Award for outstanding supporting actress in a drama series on Thursday, July 13, 2017. The Emmy Awards ceremony, airing Sept. 17 on CBS, will be hosted by Stephen Colbert. (Netflix via AP) ORG XMIT: NYET854

Millie Bobby Brown, right, gestures as from left, Noah Schnapp, and Finn Wolfhard look on at the “Stranger Things” panel on day three of Comic-Con (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP).

This image released by Netflix shows David Harbour in “Stranger Things.” Harbour was nominated for an Emmy Award for outstanding supporting actor in a drama series on Thursday, July 13, 2017. The Emmy Awards ceremony, airing Sept. 17 on CBS, will be hosted by Stephen Colbert. (Curtis Baker/Netflix via AP) ORG XMIT: NYET849

Millie Bobby Brown winner of the award for best actor in a show for “Stranger Things” at the MTV Movie and TV Awards at the Shrine Auditorium on Sunday, May 7, 2017, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

LOS ANGELES, CA – MAY 07: The cast of ‘Stranger Things’ (C) accepts Show of the Year from the cast of ’13 Reasons Why’ (rear) onstage during the 2017 MTV Movie And TV Awards at The Shrine Auditorium on May 7, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

This image released by Netflix shows Millie Bobby Brown in “Stranger Things.” The program was nominated for an Emmy Award for outstanding drama series on Thursday, July 13, 2017. The Emmy Awards ceremony, airing Sept. 17 on CBS, will be hosted by Stephen Colbert. (Curtis Baker/Netflix via AP) ORG XMIT: NYET803

Alexandra Daddario, from left, and Zac Efron present the award for best actor in a show to Millie Bobby Brown for her role in “Stranger Things” at the MTV Movie and TV Awards at the Shrine Auditorium on Sunday, May 7, 2017, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

The next morning, after a night of power outages, Will’s mother Joyce (Winona Ryder) become frantic and urges Police Chief Hopper (David Harbour) to search for him. The chief is unconcerned but agrees to check things out.

Meanwhile, a young girl wearing a hospital gown wanders in Benny’s Diner with a tattoo of “11” on her arm. The owner feeds her but is suspicious, especially when she seems to stop a noisy fan with just a look. He’s going to turn her over to what he thinks is social services so she can get help, but the woman who shows up kills him. Eleven, or El, as the child becomes known, escapes.

When the police can’t find Will, the other boys decide to search the woods themselves. Instead the stumble on Eleven who claims she can hear Will breathing. Around the same time, Joyce gets a mysterious phone call who she can’t understand as the lights flicker and electricity zaps her.

The boys argue about what to do but take Eleven to Mike’s house where she shows off her powers, unsettling them. Joyce steps up her search for Will, and the police find a drainpipe they think Will could have used that leads to the laboratory.

In another storyline, Mike’s studious older sister, Nancy (Natalie Dyer) is secretly seeing cool guy Steve (Joe Keery). At a pool party, the pair desert Nancy’s friend Barb who is grabbed and dragged down into the pool by the unseen entity.

Barb winds up in an “upside down” world, an eerie reflection of where she was taken from. The boys agree to meet with El after school so she can take them to where Will is. As she waits at Mike’s house, watching TV triggers flashbacks of her manipulating things with her mind and going crazy when they try to force her to kill a cat.

The investigation gets Hopper into the lab, but he doesn’t find anything, though his suspicions are raised. Joyce grows more frantic, trying to communicate with will through Christmas lights. As El leads the boys to Will’s house, sirens blare, a body has been discovered. It’s Will’s.

Joyce, however, refuses to believe it, because she is still communicating with him through the Xmas lights. Things at the lab are growing more dangerous as a man in a Hazmat suit is killed investigating a gooey-looking wall. Brenner (Matthew Modine), the scientist in charge, is trying to keep the fact that they can’t control the monster under wraps.

Will’s body is taken to a government facility, and Hopper uses a ruse to get in and examine it and finds that the corpse isn’t real. So he breaks into the lab and discovers some other strange things but is knocked out by agents. When he wakes up he’s in his own room and realizes that he’s being watched.

Eleven and the boys have been following their own leads and believe they have discovered a gate to the upside down. As they approach it, the boys fight about what to do, and Eleven, remembering the dangers of the upside down, disappears.

Nancy, who feels guilty about Barb’s disappearance, and Will’s older brother, Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), begin a search of their own in the woods. After some spooky stuff, they are separated. Nancy finds the gate, a gooey tree that leads her into the upside down.

This image released by Netflix shows Millie Bobby Brown in a scene from “Stranger Things.” Brown was nominated for an Emmy Award for outstanding supporting actress in a drama series on Thursday, July 13, 2017. The Emmy Awards ceremony, airing Sept. 17 on CBS, will be hosted by Stephen Colbert. (Netflix via AP) ORG XMIT: NYET854

Sensing danger, Nancy tries to get out and just manages to do so as Jonathan pulls her through the opening. Meanwhile, the boys and Eleven go through adventures of their own, eventually reuniting. El’s growing powers are having a detrimental effect on her.

Hopper and Joyce follow a lead to the sister of a woman who was abducted. Turns out the woman was pregnant and believed her daughter, who would be about El’s age, was taken from her.

Government agents start closing in on the boys and El. By then, Hopper has realized they are key to finding Will. So he gathers Nancy, Jonathan, and Joyce who rescue the youths from the agents.

El realizes she needs a “bathtub” to access the down under. What she means is a sensory-deprivation tank. The gang is able to create a makeshift one, and El manages to contact Will, telling him they are coming to rescue him.

Hopper and Joyce try to break into the lab. Meanwhile, Nancy and Jonathan gather up some firepower to take down the Demogorgon, the monster who is coming after them. Around the time Hopper and Joyce find the wall and Will amid the goo, the monster attacks Nancy and Jonathan who fend it off.

A final showdown at the middle school finds El using her powers to first fend off Brenner and his agents. Then the monster comes after her and the boys. It takes all her power to fight it, telling Mike goodbye and that she is sorry about missing the dance they were to go to together.

Then everything flashes forward a month. The boys are playing Dungeons & Dragons again. Life seems normal. There is no El, except Hopper is seen leaving a box of waffles in the woods. Will is still recovering but has a flash of the upside down as the season ends.

Rob Lowman began at the L.A. Daily News working in editing positions on the news side, including working on Page 1 the day the L.A. Riots began in 1992. In 1993, he made the move to features, and in 1995 became the Entertainment Editor for 15 years. He returned to writing full time in 2010. Throughout his career he has interviewed a wide range of celebrities in the arts. The list includes the likes of Denzel Washington and Clint Eastwood to Kristin Stewart and Emma Stone in Hollywood; classical figures like Yo Yo Ma and Gustavo Dudamel to pop stars like Norah Jones, Milly Cyrus and Madonna; and authors such as Joseph Heller, John Irving and Lee Child. Rob has covered theater, dance and the fine arts as well as reviewing film, TV and stage. He has also covered award shows and written news stories related to the entertainment business. A longtime resident of Santa Clarita, Rob is still working on his first more-than-30-year marriage, has three grown children (all with master's degrees) and five guitars.

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